The circus hits the road to NYC in week 2...

"The Browns enter primetime Monday night, in a pressure-filled matchup against the Jets". A sentence that in recorded history maybe has never been uttered aloud.  That is unless you fire up the Wayback machine and go all back to September 21, 1970.  (Side note: the Boris & Natasha skits from Rocky and Bullwinkle speak volumes about the Cold War.  Also, I thought Pottsylvania was a real place until about the 11th grade)  The early 70's were quite a time in America; Richard Nixon was president, stamps were 6 cents (people actually mailed things back then apparently), and you could buy a brand-new Ford Pinto for $1,830.  We had landed on the moon a year prior, we were still a couple years away from the Arab oil embargo, and the Carpenters, the Jackson Five, and Guess Who were blaring from 8-track players everywhere.  The NFL as we know it was still in it's infancy. 1970 was the first season after the AFL-NFL merger and the Browns and Jets were due to meet in the first ever broadcast of Monday Night Football.  Howard Cosell and Keith Jackson called the action from Cleveland Municipal Stadium as the Browns beat Broadway Joe Namath in a dramatic fashion 31-21.  Although there were actually 85,703 people were in the stadium, I am sure there are 300,000 people that claim to have been there.  (Probably the same 300,000 people that claim to have been at Len Barker's perfect game in 1981)

Anyway, fast forward 50 years.  As previously mentioned, the Browns arrive in New Jersey in desperate need of a win, after having been completely throttled in week one by the Tennessee Titans.  Allow me a brief dissection of that nonsense that happened last week.  We are all aware of the 18 penalties for 182 yards, the three interceptions from Baker (who apparently woke up feeling dangerous), as well as the performance of the porous offensive line.  But to me, the most egregious aspect of the game is that Titans led 12-6 at half time.  So what in the world happened at halftime that resulted in getting outscored 31-7 in the second half?  John Dorsey is the GM and by all accounts has done a fantastic job.  He's drafted well, brought in key free agents, and put some important pieces in place around Baker Mayfield.  And he got rid of Hue Jackson, who somehow was allowed to linger long enough to put up a record of 11-44-1 (Including the infamous 0-16 "perfect season") John Dorsey must have had some sleepless nights after losing to Baltimore in week 16, but shortly thereafter announced that Freddie Kitchens would be the head coach in 2019.  I was surprised by the decision at the time, Gregg Williams went 5-3 as the head coach during the second half of the season.  However, he has long been a shady dude in the NFL.  He was initially suspended indefinitely resulting from Bountygate in New Orleans, and recently a few different Browns players expressed relief that he was no longer with the organization.  So perhaps it was too much shade around Gregg Williams that led to his demise.  Regardless, Kitchens is heading the ship this season, and it's safe to say that last week might have been the worst possible way to start.  To be fair, the first four minutes and 49 seconds were amazing.  Baker hit 3 different receivers, Chubb had a nice run, and the Browns roared down the field to a 6-0 lead in less time than it takes Sokolowski's University Inn to prepare a plate of pierogies.  However, the remaining 55 minutes and 11 seconds were an unmitigated disaster, and a lot of that lay at Freddie Kitchen's feet.  The Browns were completely undisciplined, they committed the most penalties as a team since 1951 (that's really saying something considering the last 20 years of Browns football) not to mention Baker Mayfield trying to force feed the ball to OBJ every other play.  These are professional football players, so at the end of the day they are responsible for their actions. But I think most people in and around the NFL would agree that it reflects on the head coach when there are mental mistakes, a lack of focus, and the team is easily frustrated and reacts poorly to adversity.  As I mentioned before, I cannot fathom what went down at halftime in that locker room.  Freddie has been around football most of his life, so I am sure he said all the right things, but clearly that fell on deaf ears because the second half was, pardon the expression, a shit sandwich.  The loss and even the score are not really as worrisome the behavior, the ejection, the penalties, and our star QB completely falling apart in the fourth quarter.  Those things are symptomatic of a lack of leadership both on the field and at the top of the food chain as well. (shout out to ongoing grade 9 ecology studies)

Perhaps I am falling victim to "overreaction Monday", even though I am technically 6 days late on that.  But I am deeply concerned about this team right now, and not only do they have to have a win tomorrow, it has to be in a convincing manner and this team has to look sharp and composed doing so.  It's worth noting that the aforementioned Gregg Williams is the defensive coordinator for the Jets, and surely he'll try to bait the Browns into losing their cool at times.  Obviously, he also knows the Browns well on both sides of the ball, so an ugly low-scoring game could loom in the future.  However, I am going to put aside my jaded cynicism for just a moment.  What could very likely happen is that Nick Chubb gets a ton of work, has a great day rushing and the Browns hold on to the ball for long stretches of the game.  It's hard to see the Jets offense doing a whole lot, even with that petulant child, Le'veon Bell, who actually is listed as questionable as of Sunday morning.  The Jets were bottom 5 in just about all offensive categories last year, and it's difficult to see Trevor Siemian turning into Joe Namath all of the sudden.  More likely he's a mash-up of Geno Smith and Greg McElroy.  Hard to believe that a Browns team could be a 6.5 point favorite after last week, but I'll dust off my rose-colored glasses and picks the Browns to win 26-16.

Go Browns.